Too Normal
by bucktooth22
Summary: The man that time gave birth to and the woman that time forgot.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Nine. He was the drifter, the hero, the quiet one that no one ever really knew but everyone knew of. He'd saved the world, and saved the people in it. That's what kept him going, he'd say, that's what kept him alive. He was the fighter. The valiant. The hero. He was the oncoming storm. Ten was more of a lover, a saver, a kinder but scarier soul. Eleven, well if Nine could have seen him, what he'd become, he'd be so ashamed. Eleven was a childish little thing wasn't he? But anyway, Nine. Not much has been recorded of Nine and his history. He saved people. Helped people. Did amazing and heroic things. Met amazing and heroic people but his life never really got started until Rose. This, however, is a story of something that happened before Rose. As Nine ran through the damp streets of London he bumped into a girl. More like collided into her but they both fell to the ground none the less. And as he scooped up his sonic screwdriver and continued running he tossed a quick apology over his shoulder. Soon she was forgotten by him. One of the many thousands of faces he'd seen. A mere speck in the timeless limitless existence that was the Doctor. She picked herself up, brushed herself off, and moved on with her simple life. She went home to the house she'd lived. Her life was boring and even The Doctor had run the other way. She didn't know it yet but she'd change his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Nine did a lot of running. He liked running. He also met a lot of people and not a single one was unimportant. Until he met her. He'd run into her three times. Three times? Maybe more. Who's counting though? Times she'd remember but he'd forget. And then on the fourth or fifth time, he stopped, and looked at her. "Who are you?" He asked as he brushed himself off.

"Stephanie." She replied as she got up and glared at him. He frowned skeptically. "And might I have the pleasure of knowing who you are? The man who's always running into me." She growled.

"I've run into you before? But I always remember…" He trailed off as he stepped closer to her eyeing her. "How many times?" He asked as his eyes narrowed.

"Four…no wait, five." She said. "And there have been bruises." She added.

"But I never stopped to talk to you?" He asked incredulously as he frowned and stepped back, clearly deep in thought.

"Not once. Rude much?" She huffed.

"Not usually. It's something about you. Something wrong with you." He said moving closer to her and looking at her appraisingly.

"Oh thanks." She said sarcastically.

"You're always near something important. What do you do? What's your life like?" He asked as he lifted her hair and sniffed it before dropping it and returning to looking skeptically at her.

"You Brits are weird." She frowned as she began to step away. He grabbed her arm.

"Tell me...Stephanie." He said as if her name were weird. "Do you seem to be always around things that are weird? Lights breaking. Things you see but can't explain?" He asked.

"Did you escape from a mental institution or something?" She asked.

"Oh how American." He laughed. "That's a yes." He said sobering as he thought silently.

"Brown hair. Brown eyes. Not rich. Not poor. Not tall. Not short. Not skinny. Not fat. Not stunning. Not ugly. Not old. Not young. You just have one of those faces." He said as he finally let go of her arm and stepped away from her. "You're too normal." He declared.

"Too normal?" She laughed. "And you're too weird."

"Where do you work? Live alone? Family's normal?" He asked.

"Stalker much?" She huffed.

"I'm being chased by something and now you are too so you'd better run!" He shouted as he bolted off. She stood there for a moment, considering how mad this man was and how it was most clearly a trap of some kind. But instead of pretending it never happened, she ran. After him she ran until she reached a blue box and, for some reason, she slipped inside. As she looked behind her she felt like she was most certainly going insane. It was huge, like a whole mansion inside one small blue box. "Yes bigger on the inside." He said as he began flipping switches and jiggling knobs.

"The doors locked." She said anxiously as she tried the door desperately.

"Well of course it is." He rolled his eyes.

"Why? I want to go back. I want to go home. I'm scared. I don't even know who you are or what you're planning on doing with me." She wailed as she pounded her fist on the door.

"Oh stop your fussing. I'm the Doctor. This is the TARDIS. My space ship. She's a beauty. She can travel through time and space. Time And Relative Dimension In Space." He laughed.

"So you're kidnapping me?" She huffed as she slid to the floor against the door.

"No. I'll take you back just as soon as I take care of the guys who were chasing me." He said frowning at her as if she were being dramatic.

"Take me back now!" She shouted. "Flap your big ears and fly me there if you have to Dumbo!" She shouted as she stood up and rushed over to him.

"Not nice." He chide her as she slid into his arms feeling very dizzy and lightheaded. "Got a nickname Stephanie?" He asked as he put her gently in the battered old chair. "Can i call you Steph? Stephie? S?" He offered a few.

"No." She huffed crossing her arms. "Fix it then. Fix it so I can go home." She hissed. He looked at her curiously for a moment before nodding and continuing what he was doing.

"You're normal. Average. Right?" He asked. "Ok at everything. Not good or bad at any one thing." He said looking to her for confirmation. She nodded hesitantly.

"Perfect." He muttered mysteriously.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

With the enemy defeated and the danger gone, the Doctor dropped Stephanie off back at her house. "Thanks." She muttered sarcastically as her dogs started barking.

"You could come with me you know." He called after her. She looked at him over her shoulder.

"With you? I don't even know you." She laughed. "Your real name. Where you come from. Nothing." She said. He looked puzzled for a moment. "I have things to look after." She said at last as she continued walking to her home. He shrugged and returned to his TARDIS and Stephanie became something that ate away in the back of his mind. Once again forgotten, even though he didn't want to forget. He didn't want to forget her but he did. Everyone always did. She was just a memory, a foggy spot in his mind, a blur in time and space that was too normal. And years later something in his mind clicked and he realized. Too normal.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

The Doctor was racing. Through time. Through the TARDIS. To her. But would she still be there? Would she still have that fire? He felt the TARDIS lurch as she landed and he hurried out and began pounding on the door. Barking responded, followed by shouts and soon the door was lurched opened. Furry black heads crowded around her feet as she stared at him, her pajamas askew. "You." She huffed as she stepped outside and closed the door behind her. "Should have guessed."

"You're too normal. I get it. Too human. Too average." He said grinning like a mad man, which he was.

"You're insane." She said rolling her eyes at him.

"You're so normal, strange things, phenomena happen around you. It's drawn to you." He said.

"So?" She asked as if she already knew. Well she did, but he didn't know that.

"So I can't just leave you here." He said as the dogs began barking again.

"Oh shut up!" She snapped at them. It didn't stop them but it made her feel better.

"No. What are they barking at?" He asked urgently.

"I don't know. They just bark." She responded.

"Exactly." He said as he brushed past her and into her house. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began waving it around.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked as the light above him shattered, raining down broken glass on him.

"Run!" He shouted as he raced out of the house, grabbing her hand and dragging her along with him. When they got out, she yanked her hand out of his.

"Why?" She demanded.

"There's a creature in there. Something you should never see but you've been looking at it all along." He said.

"Well my dogs are in there and it's not going to get them." She declared as she raced back inside. Soon enough she dragged three big black dogs out and slammed the door after them.

"Dogs?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes." She retorted.

"They're not getting in my TARDIS." He said flatly.

"I didn't ask them to." She responded. As she began attaching each of them to a leash. "I'm taking them and I'm getting away from you. And if you find me again I'll just leash them up and move again because you're wrong. I'm not too normal. I'm extraordinary." She laughed. She'd always hated the word but now it worked. Extra-ordinary.

"No you can't go!" He said chasing after her. "The...bad things...chasing me." He said as he raced after her.

"Don't care." She responded as she walked faster.

"They're called Daleks and they've been living dormant in your house." He said.

"I think I'd know if something was living in my house." She retorted as she began running. He picked up speed, running alongside her.

"No they're clocked." He responded in his 'duh' voice. "Your dogs. They always bark at the same spots in the house? Two of them." He said. "Two Daleks using your beyond normal-ness to reboot and now that they're back to normal...well..." The doctor looked over his shoulder as two things that looked absurdly like salt and pepper shakers with a plunger and a whisk sticking out of them slid onto the street.

"And you expect me to believe those were in my house? And they're dangerous?" She asked laughing as she ran faster. Her dogs seemed to be getting anxious and were pulling her along faster and faster.

"Exterminate!" The Daleks began to shout.

"Run faster!" The Doctor said as he grabbed Stephanie's free hand and joined the dogs in dragging her along.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

They'd run and run and then they ran faster until the Doctor stopped, and Stephanie collided with him and the dogs yelped as everyone fell to the ground. But then up popped the Doctor and then he dragged her up with him and put a hand on each of her shoulders to steady and focus her. Then he smiled and whispered, "I have a plan." Before off he went again, her hand in his, and then they began running some more.

"Wait...are we running in a circle?" She asked as they got back to her block and then her house and then her backyard where a big blue box had been carelessly parked.

"Yep." He said as ye yanked her, dogs and all, into the box.

"I thought you said no dogs in the box?" She asked as she tried in vain to get her dogs under control.

"It's called the TARDIS and yeah...just...don't let them go anywhere." He said as the groaning noise began, meaning the ship was in motion.

"I can drop you off somewhere, fix this, and then get you back but you'll never be safe you know." He said warningly.

"Doctor, have you ever been a father?" She asked looking up at him from where she was sitting, among her dogs.

"Sort of." He said not looking up from what he was doing.

"No. I can tell. You've never really been a father. At least not a real one. If you were you'd understand. I don't care about my safety." She shook her head at him. "I don't care about where you put me, what you do to me, or if I'm even happy." She stopped as the Doctor's movements stilled and his eyes found her, landed carefully on her.

"You're a parent." He said carefully.

"I'm a mother." She corrected. "And not just any mother." She stood, her fist tightening on the leashes. "I'm a mother of three beautiful babies who were changed into dogs by aliens!" She shouted angrily. She was one of the ones he didn't, couldn't, fix. "Dogs who can't talk or think like they should. They're dogs Doctor and I have to protect them. I'm too normal? Well they're too not." She said. "And they can't protect themselves so I will. I will till I die." She said. He nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

The Doctor looked at her. And her dogs. Her children, her babies, her tears. He had once again, ruined her life. Let her babies turn into dogs. Let her dogs be killed. He'd saved her, but only just. And now, as she held their bodies, she cried and he felt himself breaking. Something deep inside was breaking. His hearts. And as she looked up at him from the dirty ground, with two steaming Daleks sitting dead only feet away, he saw something breaking in her too. "Take me with you. Anywhere. Somewhere. Just please." She sniffled weakly. He nodded and took her hand, lifting her away from the pain. And pulling her weakly to his TARDIS. And as he set it whirring and groaning into motion, he let her cry on his shoulder and he let her punch him weakly. He was silent as she cried and begged him to go back and fix it, because, well, time machine, and then whispered apologies as she hit him weakly and blamed him and then just sat silently.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who

"Here we are." He said as the TARDIS stopped. It'd been about two and a half weeks and he decided she needed something to do. So he'd taken her to beaches and to Romans and to words made out of feathers but now, he'd just stopped the TARDIS in space with his very favorite view. The Milky Way lie beneath them and as he flung the doors open and dragged his little moper over he put his arm around her shoulder. "That's your galaxy." He smiled. She was silent. "Just think Stephanie. Just think of a single person on earth. One person, on one street, in one neighborhood, in one city, in one country, in one continent, on one planet, in one solar system, in one galaxy, in one universe." He said gently squeezing her shoulder.

"How small we must be." She mumbled.

"And now think, that one person can change the universe with one decision. That's how the universe got here. Small people made small decisions and the universe revolves around them. For that one second, for every decision anyone has ever made, anywhere, any time, the universe revolves around them." He smiled weakly at her, not knowing how she'd take this.

"And me?" She asked. He nodded.

"You too."

"Even though I'm too normal?" She asked. He nodded again.

"You're not too normal, you're just perfect." He kissed the top of her head.

"You have a crush?" She teased as she pushed him playfully.

"On you?" He teased back. "So now where do you want to go?" He asked.

"Can we just stay here for a while?" She asked as she sat with her legs dangling out of the TARDIS. He sat next to her.

"Sure."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Ood, and Weeping Angels, and Slitheen, and Daleks, and Cybermen, and Sontaran, and Cats, and copies, and even Torchwood. He showed her everything. But in the end, he lost her. He'd let her slip into a black hole and then she was gone. But not just gone, she never existed. And, because she was so normal and unmemorable, everything he did with her, every memory he had with her, every adventure they shared, and tears they shed, and lives they saved, left. Forgotten. She had done all those things, been there, had her dog children, met all those people, touched all those lives, and changed the Doctor for good but no one would ever remember her. She was just too normal. Too forgettable. And then came Rose and Martha and Donna and Amy and Rory and River and Clara but no one will ever remember her. She'll just be that thought nagging at the back of his mind, something long lost, and something never to be remembered. Something important and unimportant. Something that he should have never seen and something he'd been staring at all along. Someone he'd loved and someone his heart couldn't bear missing another day but someone his brain, his limitless conciseness could never grasp. Like smoke. Like fog. Like mist. She drifted away, into the background. Into the farthest reaches of his mind, of all time and space and he'd never met a single person that didn't matter. Until her. But she'd mattered to so many lives until he let her fall. He'd failed her so many times and he wouldn't even remember. The girl that was too normal and just perfect. His little moping anomaly.


End file.
